Description

On June 29, 2023, the LockBit ransomware organisation declared on its websites that it had struck Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and demanded a $70 million ransom. According to the claim, hackers took a substantial amount of sensitive information and gave the victim seven days to reply, but the deadline has now been extended until August 6, 2023. In a reaction, TSMC stated that it is aware of the matter and that one of its IT hardware suppliers, Kinmax Technology, was involved in an incident that resulted in the compromise of initial server setup information and configuration. According to TSMC, the initial investigation determined that the incident had no impact on TSMC's operations or customer information because the company examines all hardware, including security configurations, before installing it into its system. In addition, after the incident, the TSMC firm promptly stopped data exchange with the affected supplier, and the situation is currently being investigated by a law enforcement agency. Furthermore, on June 29, 2023, Kinmax Technology in a statement issued said that its internal specific testing environment had been breached, leaking some of its data. The leaked data includes system installation preparation that the companies provided to their customers as default configuration and includes some customers' names. The company said it thoroughly investigated the incident and has improved security measures to avoid such incidents in the future.